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To: MinorityRepublican
DH in the National League?!? *sputter . . . choke . . . Communists! . . . Bolsheviks! . . . square dance callers!!!!! . . .*

Madison Bumgarner's 2015 home runs (hit, not surrendered).

Trivia:

* Warren Spahn surrendered both the first home run of Willie Mays's career and, almost a decade and a half later, the only home run of Sandy Koufax's.

* Speaking of Spahn, he's one of five pitchers to hit 30+ homers in their pitching careers. The others: Wes Ferrell (38), Bob Lemon (37), Red Ruffing (36), Spahn (35), and Earl Wilson (30, the most of any expansion-era pitcher).

* One of the reasons the Minnesota Twins were able to push the 1965 World Series to a seventh game (getting themselves another date with a Koufax shutout) was starter Jim (Mudcat) Grant hitting one into the seats in the sixth.

* Rick Camp, Atlanta Braves relief pitcher. His home run in the bottom of the eighteenth re-tied the infamous 1985 game between the Braves and the Mets that started on the Fourth of July and ended early in the morning on the fifth of July. "If this team needs me to hit a home run to win a game," he cracked, "they're in trouble." The game went to a nineteenth inning . . . and the Mets battered Camp for five runs in the top, with the Braves able to answer with only a single RBI in the bottom. Final score: 16-13.

* Tony Cloninger, 1966 Braves, on the third of July: two grand slams in back-to-back at-bats; nine runs batted in (still a record for pitchers), and the Braves batter the Giants 17-3.

* Ten pitchers ever have hit game-winning home runs:

---Lou Sleater (Tigers), against Wally Burnette (Athletics). 30 May 1957.
---Bob Grim (Yankees), against Willard Nixon (Red Sox). 5 September 1957.
---Dixie Howell (White Sox)*, against Wally Burnette (Athletics). 6 September 1957. (Yes, it makes poor Burnette the only man in baseball history to surrender two walkoff bombs to a pitcher.)
---Murry Dickson (Athletics), against Artie Portacarrero (Orioles). 26 May 1958.
---Glen Hobbie (Cubs), against Vinegar Bend Mizell (Pirates, and future Original Met, of course). 25 August 1960.
---Lindy McDaniel (Cubs), against Billy Pierce (Giants). 6 June 1963.
---Juan Marichal (Giants), against Elroy Face (Pirates). 21 September 1966.
---Steve Hargan (Indians), against Chuck Dobson (Athletics). 19 June 1967.
---Jim Hardin (Orioles), against Moe Drabowsky (Royals). 10 May 1969.
---Craig Lefferts (Padres), against Greg Minton (Giants). 25 April 1986.

(*---Not to be confused with the catcher of the same name.)

47 posted on 01/24/2016 1:02:39 PM PST by BluesDuke (If the blues had a baby and named it rock and roll, the blues should have had an abortion . . .)
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To: BluesDuke

Brings back memories of Tony Cloninger hitting two grand slams in one game. Interesting to note that feat has been accomplished by a handful of players in all of baseball history, but one of them was by a pitcher.


49 posted on 01/24/2016 1:08:06 PM PST by Dilbert San Diego
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